


The Sensation of Touch

by bravest_person_in_Wonderland



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: C'rizz just needs love ok?, Drabble Sequence, Gen, I don't usually write drabbles/ficlets, Spoilers for Audio 101: Absolution, a certain adorable lizard boi really really loves his spunky human sister, but this time I did?, chosen family, idk how this happened, interdimensional adopted space siblings, space-time family, they're siblings fight me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23652955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravest_person_in_Wonderland/pseuds/bravest_person_in_Wonderland
Summary: Literally just cute feelsy stuff for C'rizz and Charley because they're the best space siblings ever and I will never be over that. All of these are under 200 words by Microsoft Word's count.
Relationships: C'rizz & Charley Pollard
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	1. touch

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a random note I typed onto my phone earlier this week and ended up as this five-part drabble sequence I'm about to dump on y'all. It's also very different than what I usually write? I don't usually write fanfic in present-tense, but for this one it works. I hope I got the character voice right!!

C’rizz isn’t used to being touched, certainly not as often as he is now. The Doctor doesn't seem to even think about it, but Charlotte is more deliberate. Her touches mean something, to convey comfort or affection. He can tell because it took her a little while, she had to know him a bit better before she was fully comfortable with laying a hand on his shoulder when he's lost in memories of L'da, or leaning her head on his shoulder if they're sitting close. At first it startled him, but now it's alright. The Doctor and Charlotte are slowly becoming his family, and he's okay with that. The voices sometimes worry him, make him wonder if they would still care about him if they knew who he really is… would they still want to be close to him, to touch him?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's set somewhere around the end of Faith Stealer.

Why does this always happen? Everyone he cares about always gets hurt, he always hurts everyone, he can’t stop it. He did it again, he hurt Charlotte again and he hates himself for it. He knows if he looks at her, he’ll see bruises forming on her fragile human skin where he tried to strangle her. So he doesn’t look. He doesn’t want to consider that her voice could have been added to the cacophony in his mind if the Doctor hadn’t come when he did. A feather-light touch of her fingers to his wrist startles him. He almost pulls away, but before he can, she’s already slid her much smaller hand into his and is squeezing gently. It’s alright, the touch somehow conveys even without words.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think... mid-Time Works? like When Charley is lowkey freaking out cos she's afraid that the Doctor might be killed.

Charlotte is afraid. C’rizz can see it in the way her nose has wrinkled up and she keeps biting her lips. She won’t talk to him. He knows that she doesn’t like to admit it when she’s scared, but he wants to help. So he reaches for her hand, hoping that she’ll understand. He doesn’t know how to communicate with touch like she and the Doctor do, though maybe it isn’t really something one _knows._ Perhaps it’s intuitive, something that passes between people who care for one another. This is the best he can do for her right now. It’s all she’ll let him do.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one could fit anywhere, but it feels like there's a gap between Memory Lane and Absolution, so maybe there.

The TARDIS library is a good place for hiding. He can blend right into the carpet and shelves. He comes here often, when he wants to be alone. Sometimes Charlotte finds him, and they read together, or even just bicker about what book to read. She tried to get him to read Alice in Wonderland once, but it didn’t make any sense. She told him that was the point of it, but that was silly. What was the point of a book whose point was to have no point? No, he prefers the more solemn, logical stories and histories. More than once, after a long day of saving planets or fighting monsters, Charlotte will fall asleep leaning against him as he reads aloud. This, he thinks, is what family is supposed to be.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... am sorry. If you're reading this, I probably don't have to tell you where in the timeline this last drabble is.

Is this grace, C’rizz wonders, the chance to, in some small way, make up for all the terrible things he’s done? Maybe. But maybe grace is more like the way Charley awkwardly pulls him into her arms, the way her face softens as she looks at him. He saved her, in the end. He didn’t hurt her again, he saved her and the Doctor and everyone else – really saved, not the way he used to. She’s fighting back tears, he can tell. He hates it when she cries. He wishes he could stay. Memories play through his mind, Charley’s trembling voice and her arms around him reminding him of all those nights reading in the library, of building mountains of pillows with the Doctor and having pillow fights, of all the joy he’d never thought he would have, the things he thought he didn’t deserve. Friends. A home. A sister. Grace. The last thought in his mind as he drifts away is of his family, the family he chose – the Doctor and Charley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so quick explanation! I kept using the word "grace" in this last part because it's almost the same as "absolution," except that absolution tends to have some... idk, legalistic? connotations, whereas just the word grace doesn't so much (And yes, this depends on your worldview a little bit tbh). BUT i noticed right off the bat that C'rizz's name sounds very very similar to the Ancient Greek word χάρις (karis), which means, you guessed it: grace. I have no clue if the writers even knew that, let alone if it's on purpose, but I find it very interesting.
> 
> I would love feedback, this fic is different than what I've done before and I'd love to see what y'all think. 
> 
> Also I think this is the first thing I've posted that's totally un-betaed...;-;


End file.
